War creates tough questions over critical Ukraine payments as de-risking threats loom

Keith Ditcham, an organised crime researcher and Senior Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute told Financial Crime Digest that some of the challenges European banks may face in onboarding new Ukrainian customers predate the war. Ukraine was already a significant source of human trafficking as well as a major trafficking transit and destination country, Ditcham said. Russian’s invasion has resulted in an "increased risk of people being exploited for trafficking purposes, whether women in the sex trade, or children, or men being used as mules for money and drugs, and this all fits the crime profile of Ukraine" prior to the latest eruption of the war, Ditcham said.